Wed, Dec 23, 2009
QinetiQ Brings Combined Aerial Target Service For Mirach Online
For UK
QinetiQ has officially brought into
service the Mirach advanced sub-sonic aerial target, as part of the
Combined Aerial Target Service (CATS) contract for the UK's armed
forces, having completed a series of complex verification and
operational evaluation trials.
Under the CATS contract QinetiQ provides a service that meets
all the UK MOD’s unmanned sub sonic aerial target
requirements worldwide, including ground-based air defence (GBAD)
training for the Army, aerial target services for the Royal Navy,
and an air-to-air service for the RAF. The MOD awarded the CATS
contract to QinetiQ on 14th December 2006 and it is worth up to
$493 million over 20 years.
Mirach targets are manufactured by SELEX Galileo of Finmeccanica
and have been enhanced to offer a variety of sophisticated new
payloads to meet MOD training requirements. These include the
integration of commercial-off-the-shelf technologies like chaff and
flare, an intense onboard heat source, miss distance indicator
capabilities, radar enhancements and an IFF Transponder plus the
ability to present towed IR and semi automatic radar targets.
Mirach operations have commenced from designated land based
ranges and the CATS provision will also allow Mirach to be launched
from on-board ship. Prior to becoming part of the CATS provision,
QinetiQ operated Mirach under a separate contract to meet certain
aspects of MOD’s overall targets requirement at the Aberporth
range in South Wales as part of the 25-year Long Term Partnering
Agreement (LTPA) for Test and Evaluation and Training Support
services.
CATS met its scheduled in-service
date in April 2008 with the Banshee basic aerial target and the
Pop-up ground-based helicopter target, both manufactured and
supplied by Meggitt Defence Systems, the first elements to become
available under the CATS contract. The QinetiQ team has since
successfully delivered a target service with these on a number of
occasions, including training army ground based air defence units
in the Falkland Islands and deployments to Manorbier in Wales and
at BATUS in Canada.
"QinetiQ’s CATS team provides a comprehensive air defence
training service to the MOD that supports front-line
operations,” explained Mike Howarth Managing Director of
QinetiQ’s Managed Services business. “The experience we
have gained under the CATS contract underpins QinetiQ’s
provision of wider unmanned air vehicle and other high-end managed
services plus demonstrates our ability to consistently deliver
professional, value for money solutions to our global
customers."
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